The ORIGINAL gathering place for a merry band of Three Percenters. (As denounced by Bill Clinton on CNN!)

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Tributes

If this past week has shown me anything, it is the dictum of it being better to be despised by the despicable than admired by the admirable actually may be false. Well, perhaps at least it should come with a caveat that being admired by the admirable is an awesome thing to behold. The outpouring of support from those that knew Mike and those that he affected has been overwhelming to say the very least. I was unable to fly in for the funeral but I understand that there was a good many III% folks that showed up. This is quite astonishing given the very short notice of the event. Ken Lane over at Knuckledraggin gives us a short synopsis of the event.

Online and around the blogopheres support has continued to pour in. Some from unlikely sources.

The Kansas City Star reporter, Judy Thomas, had contacted Mike months ago, (if memory serves it was around April), to produce a news story of his life and publish it upon his death. This article was vetted and sanctioned by Mike, warts and all. I was initially incredulous to the adding of SPLC semi-pro B.S. artist Mark Pitcavage as a source, but in a certain point of view it was appropriate if you want to look at Mike's life in the full spectrum. The Old Man was good with it, so I am good with it.

In the article, David outlines some of Mikes accomplishments and his career in the Patriot Movement. As a very close friend and associate, he was able to interact with Mike in a way that I could not.

Mr. Codrea observed:

"It’s also true he could at times be impulsive in his response to perceived injustices. There are more affronts to liberty and wrongs to right than any of us could hope to even hear about, let alone do anything about. When one came across Mike’s transom, he was on it like a pit bull, even if already overburdened – and that tendency was something he would not ease up on until the weakness of the flesh stripped him of any choice – and even then he would do what he could to defy."

"I’ve heard it said that such-and-such a man had “redeeming qualities.” Hogwash. Men don’t have redeeming qualities. Men are themselves redeemed, or they are lost. The God-man Christ Jesus saves men or they perish without Christ but with all of the punishments due to them, and all men are under judgment."

"That’s the sweet thing about Mike. He knew this, and he believed it. Mike didn’t do a single thing to redeem himself, but he trusted Christ and the vicarious atonement for his very life. That means that it was a life well-lived. Everything else is wasted."

"But if man cannot redeem himself, that doesn’t mean he cannot redeem what’s around him by taking dominion of the world for God’s glory. Mike did exactly that, and today he is in heaven with his Lord. I don’t believe in the phrase “rest in peace” (and Isaiah 57:2 isn’t discussing ethereal floating of one’s spirit for eternity). I also don’t believe that man’s body cools to ambient temperature and that’s the end. Mike didn’t believe that either."

III% news aggregation point, and another longtime friend, WRSA, had some excellent comments. Thank you all for that incredible grassroots tribute.

On Facebook, I could not appropriately begin to describe the level of support the family has received from that community. I am humbled that Mike's message of the III percent and teachings had been so pervasive. What an honor it is to continue to push the reach of the message further than it ever has been before. I am very proud that the social media referrals have effectively eclipsed and even doubled my Google site referrals. It is only through the high engagement of the supporters there that this has been possible.

"In my early interactions with Vanderboegh, he was patient and rightly skeptical. To him, I was the liberal, know-nothing press. He had terse dealings with other reporters. (He told one national reporter to f-off when the reporter “asked for the names and phone numbers of all my sources so he could contact them”). I knew little of guns and gun laws, and was not working from a pro-gun rights position, as he was. I saw it as a story of government misdeeds and corruption. He came to see my point of view and thought there was value in helping out. He encouraged ATF agents to speak to me and provide information. Some of those relationships continue today."

"So today, a nod to Vanderboegh and a moment to recognize his role in stopping a deadly practice that the government first denied, then later acknowledged. The gunwalking is responsible for many deaths, the government still won’t disclose how many, but surely many other deaths were prevented by the story being exposed and the practice being stopped."

Another tribute that came quite unexpectedly was that of Sebastian, NRA apologist, at the Pagunblog (formerly of "Snowflakes in Hell"). From a cursory internet search, the last public discussion was in 2015 in a Sipsey post defending Texas Open Carry.

"I had come to appreciate that regardless of whatever disagreements I may have had with Mike Vanderboegh strategically, he was quite a powerful public speaker and organizer (organizing gun owners is herding cats on a good day), in the way I could never hope to match. His work with David Codrea to break open Fast and Furious turned out to be top notch citizen journalism, despite a lot of initial skepticism. It was fine enough work that others in the media lined up to take credit and cash in."

"I will always think of him any time I put on my big Russian hat to go shovel the driveway."

Much to my surprise and delight, the best and most well known of the Mike Vanderboegh tribute articles came from his long time sparring partners, the Southern Poverty Law Center. There is something to be said for having your enemies write your eulogy.

It starts out with a dramatic, salacious, bold sub-headline:

"Michael Brian Vanderboegh, who rose from the 1990s militia ranks to become the angry, vocalco-founder of the extremist, pro-gun III Percent movement, using an Internet blog to promote his antigovernmentviews, has died."

I am positively bumfuzzled as to whom this other co-founder person or persons could be. I am also left wondering after their candidate loses the election, how quickly they will go from "you must support your president and government" back to demanding that "dissent is patriotic". They are nothing if not dependable in their hypocrisy.

On a whole, the article is filled with a laundry list of striking back at the empire. One of which is an amusing anecdote of when he sent a plastic skull to self-proclaimed "militia expert" Mark Potok. If I was told about this, perhaps I had forgotten it, but it did illustrate the creative lengths that the Old Man went to consistently jab at his enemies. He was a master at riding straight up to the line and going an inch over to see what they would do. Every time he did, they did nothing but howl loudly from their keyboards. A lesson could be learned here.

I found it curious that Kerodin did get an honorable mention of a couple of lines. For all of the chest pounding and the division that was made between those two, if Kerodin is ever mentioned at all in future, it will always be as a minor footnote to the much better man.

Several other "left" leaning articles seemed to parrot the SPLC language at least in part.

ABC, Yahoo, and AL.com, quite the lazy journalists, simply played the good parrot and re-posted the SPLC article. Boring, but the AL.com comments are pretty good. ABC got his age wrong but gets points for at least spelling the name right. You have to just see the silver lining with some people.

Idavox (whatever that is) said quite simply Mike Vanderboegh, Rot in Hell!. Oh my. Dread indeed. Mike would be proud for that indictment. Despised by the despicable and such.

As for me? I find that where I thought I had reached acceptance, I am struggling a bit now that the man is gone and his funeral complete. After such a long illness that took him down below 75 pounds and robbed him of even the ability to speak, I can see that it was a mercy. He needed to transition and the family needed to move on. I still find it difficult that I cannot pick up the phone, as I did so infrequently, and talk for a bit.

While I cannot lift up the phone, my father left me with an incredible network of experts and allies that, combined, has been everything and more that I could need. Other than this blog, that has been the best thing that I could have been heir to. I am incredibly grateful that he thought that I was capable to take the mantle of this blog on and help grow the movement that he fought so hard to create. I will continue to endeavor to let neither you nor he down.

The life of the dead is placed in the memories of the living. - Cicero

It is not more comfortable or pleasant to be despised by the despicable as it is to be admired by the admirable. It is, ironically, not even easier once you get past the level of mere contempt for everyone other than themselves the despicable project or the general benevolence of the admirable, one of the admirable qualities of many of the admirable is how readily they make the effort to have a unique personal relationship with you.

But it is more morally creditable. I find that many admirable people have a spirit of generosity and gratitude which makes them prone to admire almost everyone for at least something. While one could say the same of the pride and vanity of the despicable, it still requires actually standing up for something to really focus their hatred.

And, in the end, their hatred is not actually unlimited in the economic sense...it requires resources to maintain and direct. Those who stand up and keep drawing enemy fire deplete their reserves of ammunition if nothing else.

Mike did much more. But his willingness to endure in the face of attacks remains an example for us all to follow.

It was my duty and pleasure to be able to attend the funeral. The service was simple and short, just the way he would've wanted it. My biggest regret is that I never had a chance to meet him in this life.I met several strong Patriots there and I had the opportunity to shake Mr Codrea's hand and thank him for the work that he and Mike did.

As an aside, Kerodin was not mentioned at all or even alluded to - that bitch was nothing more than a fly on your Old Man's ass.

PS - I see the SPLC didn't pull my comment on Mike, although they did close the comments right after I left mine.

I have to add that Mike helped me a great deal in finally getting it through my at times (thankfully;-) thick skull that what I call "the 2nd Amendment Establishment" here in the great state of Washington has NEVER been about fighting for our rights. I was so very fortunate when he spoke here in our state capitol, to hear him from only a few feet away on several occasions including our December 2014 rally following the passage of that abomination known as I-594 by the "voters" of WA - I put scare quotes around that word as voters can NEVER vote on my God-given liberties. Your father was one of the wisest men I ever had the fortune to sit down with. May God bless and keep his soul and grant his family comfort.

the problem is he has put himself up as a public face of the movement, even though he barely understand the concept, and the parts he does understand, he has contempt for. he draws newbies in, and when they get their fill of his BS, they leave. they have no idea the rest of us exist, or if they do, they figure we're just like him.

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.